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PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST TELEMARKETERS by Brendon Miller 12-1-03

With the attention that has been given to the national no call list that is now in effect, many people are more aware of telemarketing calls than ever, and with the holiday season here, there is no doubt that this is the favorite time for telemarketers to call. If you are like me, telemarketing calls at home after a long day on the job are very annoying, and if you have participated in the no call list, you have noticed that “no call” does not really mean no telemarketing calls. Under the stipulations for the “no call” list, companies that you have done business with in the last 18 months may contact you, even if you are on the “no call” list. That means your credit card company or any other company with which you have recently conducted business could call you trying to sell life insurance, or some other product, for example.

If you receive a call from a company you are not recently done business with or are affiliated with, you can report that company for violating the “no call” list stipulations. To report a violation, call 1-888-382-1222. Be prepared to give the name and phone number of the telemarketer as well as the date of the call. I would suggest that if the call is unwanted, stay on the line long enough to get the caller’s identification information so that you can relay it for enforcement.

Other organizations that are permitted to call people registered on the “no call” list include: political organizations, charities and telephone surveyors.

Kentucky has its own version of the “no call” registry that was initiated by Attorney General Ben Chandler in 2002, prior to the national list being started. It is operated through the Attorney General’s office. You may register online at www.kycall0.net or call 1-866-KYCALL0. Anyone registered on Kentucky’s “no call” list will automatically be registered on the national “no call” list. Complaints regarding telemarketing calls can be addressed to the telephone number and web site listed above.

If you are not on the “no call” list, you are still fair game for any telemarketer to call you.

Whether you are on the no call list or not, you still need to watch out for telemarketing scams. All of us have heard stories about telemarketing scams ranging from fake companies soliciting charitable donations to non-existent give-a-ways. These scam artists, more than likely, do not abide by any laws or stipulations regarding telemarketing calls, so these criminals can prey upon any of us.

Thousands of con artists around the country defraud Americans of billions of dollars per year in telephone scams. And some people fall victim more than once as their names are circulated to other scam artists.

As County Attorney, I handle preliminary hearings and felony arraignments for those persons who would be charged with telephone fraud. Telephone fraud is a Class D Felony, with punishments ranging from one to five years in prison. People attempting telemarketing fraud can be prosecuted under Kentucky law, even if the fraudulent caller is calling from another state. The law states that any person or company attempting to defraud a consumer in Kentucky through the use of electronic equipment, such as phone wires, is governed and prosecuted under Kentucky law, regardless of where the fraudulent call originated.

There are many companies that conduct legitimate telemarketing. However, you can protect yourself from fraudulent companies by using these basic techniques:

Never give your credit card number or bank account numbers over the phone, unless you have initiated the contact.
Beware of shipping fees. This is one of the most common scams. People may be paying huge amounts for shipping to receive what ultimately may be a $15 prize.
Hang up if you are asked to pay for a prize.
Ask the company to send you written material on the offer. If the company is unwilling to do this, chances are the offer is not legitimate.
Avoid high-pressure tactics.
Ask detailed questions. Find out about the company’s cancellation and refund policies. Ask if there are additional charges.
Research the company or charity through the local Better Business Bureau. The local Consumer Protection Agency and the Attorney General can provide even more information.
Report fraud promptly. Victims of credit card abuse avoid most or all financial liability if they report fraud immediately.
When dealing with a person who represents himself as a representative of a company, ask for that person name and employee number, so that you can document your contact on that date.
For more information, victims can contact the Attorney General’s toll-free Consumer Protection Line, which can be reached at 866-877-7867. To sign up for the national “no call” list, call 888-382-1222 or online www.donotcall.gov. The list is updated every three months, so depending on when you register, it may take up to three months for your telemarketing calls to subside.
Remember, protect yourself. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE County Corner by Brendon Miller 10-19-03
With one of the closest gubernatorial races in years and important statewide races coming up, many Breathitt Countians are eager to get to the polls on November 4.
This is a year when one vote really could make a difference, and voters should make sure they understand some of the newer laws regarding voting passed by the General Assembly.
Voters now will need some type of identification with them in order to vote. Under Kentucky law, poll workers must turn away prospective voters who do not have identification, unless the poll workers are personally acquainted with the voter.
Acceptable identification includes any one of the following:
A drivers’ license;
An identification card with a photo and signature;
An original Social Security card; or
A credit card.
If a voter has forgotten his or her identification, he or she may leave and return with proper identification.
Other laws and regulations to keep in mind include the following:
Voter must be registered to vote by Oct. 6 to vote in the November election.
Voters have two minutes to vote once they enter the booth.
Once voters sign the precinct roster book, they must wait in line to vote or vote immediately. If the lines are long, voters cannot sign in and then come back later to vote. If they want to vote later, voters should wait to sign in until then.
Once people have voted, they must leave the polling precinct in a reasonable time.
Candidates, their family members, campaign workers and other onlookers cannot hang around precincts.
Polls open and 6 a.m. and close precisely at 6 p.m. If a voter is in line to vote before 6 p.m., he or she will be allowed to vote. The polls will not close until the last person in line at 6 p.m. has voted.
An employer cannot penalize employees for taking a reasonable time off work to vote.
If a voter has recently moved within Breathitt County, he or she should vote in the precinct of the new residence. Voters in this situation should call the county clerk’s office to obtain the new voting place. Poll workers should ask for voters’ residential address. If a voter’s new address is outside their former precinct, the poll worker can direct them to the new voting location. Those who have moved to Breathitt County from another county and have not had the opportunity to transfer their voter registration must vote in their prior county of residence.
In these situations, when there is a discrepancy between the registered address and the actual address, the voters would be required to sign oath affidavits. All affidavits are reviewed at a later date by the Commonwealth’s Attorney for possible misrepresentations.

These election laws help keep the election process pure and help ensure that people do not intentionally abuse the precious right to vote.

Your vote will be crucial in each of the races that will be decided. This election will decide the direction that the Commonwealth of Kentucky will take in the future. Voting is your opportunity to make a difference in this State, Region, County and City.

For information on voting precincts, call the county clerk’s office at 666-3810.

COUNTY ATTORNEY CORNER TIPS FOR PROTECTING YOURSELF 8-25-03
Imagine you are walking in a dark, deserted parking lot late at night. At first, you just suspect someone is following you as you walk to your car. Then you are sure of it. What would you do? Do you have a plan? If you do not, more than likely, you will soon become a victim.
Our world can be cruel and harsh, and I know first-hand that it is full of criminals. This article provides some interesting guidelines for protecting yourself. Please keep this information in mind when you are out and about, and teach it to your children. These are especially good tips to teach teenage children who are leaving for college or work in an unfamiliar city.
In the car:
Keep your vehicle in good working condition to avoid breakdowns. Keep a mobile phone with you. That will prevent you from having to rely on a stranger for help if your vehicle breaks down. If your car breaks down, call for help, turn on your hazard lights, lock your doors, and either walk to a lighted area or hide in the bushes on the side of the road. You are a sitting target if you stay in your car. Predators search the highways. Keep warm clothes and a flashlight in your car for emergencies. Park in well-lit areas, and lock all doors when exiting and entering your car.

As you approach your car in a parking lot, check underneath other cars as you approach. Look into your own car, at the passenger side floor, and in the back seat. If you are parked next to a van, enter your car from the passenger door. (Some criminals attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while they are attempting to get into their cars.) Women, especially, should look into the cars parked on the driver’s side of the car and the passenger side. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you should walk back into the place of business you just left and ask for a security guard escort.

Be wary of tricks predators use to get your “help” in parking areas. Some criminals try to lure women by asking for help getting into or out of a vehicle or for help with the vehicle itself.
In public buildings:
Avoid stairwells; they are dangerous places to be alone.
Women should not get on an elevator if there are only one or two men on it. If a woman is on an elevator and it stops to allow a lone man to get on, the woman should get off when the man enters the elevator. Better safe than sorry.
When boarding an elevator, stand near the front; be ready to get off.
If you are in a violent situation:
If someone asks you for your money, give it to him. If someone asks you for your car keys, give them to him. If this person is trying to force you to leave with him, do everything in your power to keep that from happening.
If someone who has a gun approaches you, always run. React immediately. If a criminal abducts you in a parking lot and is attempting to take you to an abandoned area, do not let him get you to that area. If you are driving, crash the car at a low mileage (5 mph), get out and run. If the attacker is driving, gouge his eyes. While he is in shock, get out of the car and run. Scream if you can. Other vulnerable areas to attack include the neck; however, you must have the strength and the knowledge of how to cut off his breath. The knees are another weak spot, but you must be forceful when kicking him there. If you are unsuccessful, you will only anger him.

If you are walking alone in the dark (which you should not be) and discover that someone is following you or chasing you, scream “fire.” People do not want to get involved when people yell “help,” but “fire” draws a crowd. If this does not work, find an obstacle, such as a parked car and run around it like ring around the rosy. This may sound ridiculous, but this can save your life long enough for someone to hear your screams. Your last hope is getting under the car. Once you are under there, there are many things to hold onto, and the predator will not be able to get you out. Most likely, he will not come under for you and will give up. However, you must practice getting under the car. You must have a plan.

When I think about the cruelty and crime in our world, it scares me, and I come into contact with it everyday through our court system. We will never put an end to crime, but we can make it as difficult as possible for criminals to have their way. I hope you will take these safety tips to heart and have a plan for staying safe. Having a plan may save your life.
I HOPE EVERYONE ENJOYS THE HONEY FESTIVAL

COUNTY ATTORNEY CORNER WHAT’S HAPPENED IN THE FIRST SIX MONTHS 7-22-03
I hope you all are having a wonderful summer. I thank all of you for the wonderful comments and e-mails that I have received regarding the articles in the paper and the overall job that I have been doing. I apologize that it has been a couple of months since the last article, but my time has been short. On July 6, I have been in office for six months, and what a six months it has been. Through this article, I hope to give you the basics of what has been going on. I joke with many people that I did not have a single gray hair on January 6, and now have them all over the place!! Seriously, the last six months have been very busy, tiring and trying, but still rewarding as our office is striving to (as I challenged the Breathitt High School graduating seniors) make a difference in Breathitt County.
The first matter that had to be addressed was the County Attorney’s office in the Courthouse. I now operate out of that office daily for all functions except my private practice. The office was in poor shape, and I thought the taxpayers of this County deserved better. The office has been cleaned up, painted, and refurbished. We have managed to purchase three new computers, a new copier, and several pieces of furniture to make the office functional and give it a professional look. The majority of this has been accomplished with the office expense money from tax collection. Please stop in and see the office and visit for a while when you are in the courthouse.

As many of you know, the County Attorney’s job consists of basically four different positions, 1) District Court prosecutor, 2) contracting official for child support, 3) tax collector and 4) legal advisor to the County and elected officials. Then there is the unknown job of psychiatrist and problem solver. I will highlight each in turn.

PROSECUTOR
As many know, the first stop for all problems is the County Attorney’s office, and we have undertaken a major change in how arrest warrants are issued. Basically, all complaints are reviewed by either myself or Assistant County Attorney Stanley Turner, to see if there is a valid complaint that can be proven in court. The complaint is checked to see if there is sufficient evidence for a charge and if so if it is serious enough to have someone arrested. I take very seriously having a person arrested based upon the statements of a private citizen without police involvement. Other County Attorney’s basically do not issue an arrest warrant without a police report or police involvement, this would be great, but to this point has not been feasible. At any rate, we are attempting to only have valid cases that need to be in court, actually in court. This both serves as a matter of fairness to all people who are innocent until proven guilty and saves the County money for housing prisoners when the person does not ultimately wish to prosecute.

Before taking office, I promised to prosecute DUI’s, including persons driving on drugs, and have done so. So far we have had 67 DUI cases that have been fully disposed of in District Court. The breakdown of disposition is as follows:

Guilty pleas as charged – 48; Guilty pleas to amended higher or lower level of DUI as was charged with wrong level based upon driving history – 5; Cases dismissed by Court (over objection of Commonwealth) on trial date or date of scheduled hearing as Commonwealth could not proceed due to Kentucky State Trooper who had made arrests no longer with KSP and would not answer subpoena – 5; Not guilty verdict at trial – 1; Case amended to reckless driving due to breathalyzer being below legal level – 1; Case amended to AI due to inability to prove operation of vehicle based upon affidavits of witnesses and victim – 1; Case dismissed by Court (over objection of Commonwealth) due to KSP officer not responding to subpoena on probable cause hearing date – 1 (this case will be refiled if the blood test comes back positive); Case dismissed due to breathalyzer being below legal level and below presumption of intoxication, plead guilty on other charges – 1; Cases that were either bound over to the Breathitt County Grand Jury in conjunction with a felony offense or dismissed (over objection of Commonwealth) at preliminary hearing as arresting officer could not appear and then presented to Breathitt County Grand Jury – 4.

This is a total of 67 cases, with 53 guilty pleas for a conviction rate of 79%. When you subtract the 6 cases dismissed by the Court due to matters concerning the failure of the arresting officer to be present, and 4 that were sent on to the grand jury as they were associated with felonies, there have been 53 of 57 cases with a conviction, for a rate of 93%, with 2 cases pleading to lesser offenses due to factual matters, 1 case pleading to other charges, and 1 acquittal.

Hopefully, people will realize that they can party and have fun and drink if they wish, but they will not be allowed to place the lives of other persons in danger by driving impaired.

The cold check program has been a success to date. Many businesses have received their funds for the checks and reported a decreased number of cold checks coming in. Apparently, the signs really help. We have to make Breathitt County conducive to business, and no business can operate when they consistently get beat on bad checks. Hopefully, cold checks will become a lesser problem in the future.
CHILD SUPPORT
In January I was honored to be chosen by the Kentucky County Attorney’s Association to represent the Kentucky River region (the eight counties of the KRADD district) on child support issues, and have attended many meetings that will hopefully shape the future of child support enforcement in Kentucky. The collection and enforcement of child support continues to improve. Child Support is a highly emotional issue due to the fact that both children and money are involved. I have always said, you can put someone in jail and they don’t mind that much, but you dip into their pocket and they get mad. Enforcement in some cases is difficult, however, the bottom line is that those children did not ask to be born and they deserve to be taken care of, and our goal is to see that this happens. The child support office is now fully staffed with five employees. Supervisor Mary Lucas, Caseworkers Lisa Herald, Janice Cole, and new employee Penny Charles, and Secretary Joy Hollon. This will facilitate closer case supervision in the future and better service to the families.

TAX COLLECTION
I have made a concerted effort to collect delinquent property taxes. The results have been truly greater than I ever expected, my goal was $100,000.00 for the year, and that has already been achieved. The effort began in earnest in early March and has reaped the following amounts:
January $ 6,644.42
February $ 2,943.28
March $18,707.45
April $21,247.71
May $22,211.44
June $38,927.58
Total $110,687.88

This money will be valuable for the County, the Breathitt Board of Education, and the other taxing districts. The above amounts may not be able to be sustained, but efforts to see that everyone pays will continue.

COUNTY ADVISOR
This by far is the most difficult and time consuming part of the job. There have been so may issues that have come to the forefront during the last six months including many aspects of the Judicial Center and the pending condemnation suit concerning the land, the ambulance service and the ongoing lawsuit, the nursing home situation, and all other matters that touch the County, all of which have demanded countless hours. Probably the most important project to me is the Breathitt County Water District. To date I have logged many, many hours trying get the Water District organized and established according to law, and have personally prepared over sixty easements and deeds along with having to verify title ownership to each of those properties along Hwy. 30. Breathitt County is in the bottom two counties in which residents have water in this Commonwealth, which is shameful. This project is desperately needed and will benefit so many along Hwy. 30 and in other parts of the County as the District progresses to other projects in the future.

Needless to say, all this along with still keeping up a private law practice, doing public appearances and speaking engagements, and trying to have a life outside this job has been very, very difficult. However, I knew all of this prior to running for the job, and it has been truly rewarding. I truly enjoy this job and trying to make change happen for the future of this county, and I am looking forward to the coming years when some of the results will be apparent. I would like to thank extend a special thanks to County Attorney Secretary Imogene Minix for her tireless work, and my wonderful wife Elizabeth, who is probably busier that me, and still has to put up with me and all the ups and downs this job brings.
Please e-mail me at bdmiller@setel.com with any comments, and visit the County Attorney website at breathittcoattorney.com for more information on the office. Remember, together we can all MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!